{"id":7151,"date":"2025-12-12T09:32:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T08:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/happiness-is-the-absence-of-striving-for-happiness\/"},"modified":"2025-12-12T09:32:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T08:32:13","slug":"happiness-is-the-absence-of-striving-for-happiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/fr\/happiness-is-the-absence-of-striving-for-happiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Happiness is the absence of striving for happiness."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-6295 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/I-am-happy-from-within-kopie-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"506\" height=\"285\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/I-am-happy-from-within-kopie-300x169.jpg 506w, https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/I-am-happy-from-within-kopie-480x270.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 506px, 100vw\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The title of this blog is a quote by Zhuangzi which is on my calendar today.<\/p>\n<p>Simple and yet so true.<\/p>\n<p>Everybody is always trying to be as happy as possible.<\/p>\n<p>When you are feeling \u2018unhappy\u2019, it seems like you\u2019 re failing somehow.<\/p>\n<p>But nothing is further from the truth.<\/p>\n<p>First of all, <strong><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">what is happiness?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>To me,<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">Happiness is feeling content with where I am in life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">Happiness is feeling grateful for everyone in my life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">Happiness is breathing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">Happiness is being alive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">Happiness is, indeed, not striving for happiness, but just being, accepting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I absolutely believe, and experience, that the moment you let go of the need to be happy, the need to be bubbly, the need to succeed in all that you\u2019re doing, that is the moment where you find peace. And that peace to me, is happiness.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, there is nothing wrong with celebrating, with feeling festive, as long as you don\u2019t see this kind of bubbly happiness, as the standard of happiness in life.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, <span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">not striving for this ecstatic form of happiness, not striving to avoid feelings of sadness, distress, \u2026is to me the way to real happiness. Because those are everyone\u2019s reality, it is a realistic way of going through life, with its ups and downs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Accepting these waves, knowing that these feelings are as much part of your life as any other feeling, that is real happiness.<\/p>\n<p>My invitation to you all this week is:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\"><strong>Embrace every feeling in your life.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\"><strong>Know that we all go through these (e-)motions.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>That is living fully.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t dwell on negativity, acknowledge it, then move on. Don\u2019t suppress negative feelings, and don\u2019t nurture them either.<\/p>\n<p>Especially this time of year where we look back on what happened the past year, and where everyone has \u2018good intentions\u2019 for the year to come, don\u2019t force happiness, don\u2019t strive for it.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">Let things come your way, and accept what is.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>You can change where you feel change is needed, but don\u2019t judge too hard. Not yourself, nor others.<\/p>\n<p>All is happening for a reason, all is okay in the grand picture of life, even though we might not always understand the why of things.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">We, as humans, always feel the need to control things, but it is in the letting go of that need for control, that all works out perfectly.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Not always as we thought was best for us, but the Universe* has our back.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">Feel faith instead of fear.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">Feel compassion instead of anger.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\">Feel connected instead of thinking that you are all alone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Whenever I feel my need for understanding and control bubble up, I say these beautiful words, written by Gabby Bernstein**:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\"><em>I welcome a presence far beyond my physical sight.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\"><em>I choose to forget what I think I need.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\"><em>I surrender my desires to the Universe.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\"><em>Thank you, Universe, for guiding me and showing me clear direction.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\"><em>Thank you, Universe, for revealing to me exactly what I need to know.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\"><em>I welcome the energy of the Universe to guide me and show me where to go, what to do, and what to say.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff00ff;\"><em>I choose to forget what I think I need and I let the Universe be my guide.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Thank you all for reading me, and for supporting me on Medium. If you want unlimited access to all of my articles, and of many other authors, you can become a Medium Member. You\u2019ll be supporting me and all the other authors. Many, many thanks to you all!!!<\/p>\n<p>Katrien<\/p>\n<p>*\u2019The Universe Has Your Back\u2019, by Gabby Bernstein.<\/p>\n<p>** \u2018Daily practice\u2019 in the Gabby app by Gabrielle Bernstein.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The title of this blog is a quote by Zhuangzi which is on my calendar today. Simple and yet so true. Everybody is always trying to be as happy as possible. When you are feeling \u2018unhappy\u2019, it seems like you\u2019 re failing somehow. But nothing is further from the truth. First of all, what is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-classifiee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifecoachwomen.be\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}